Violations of the Lausanne Treaty by turkey.

[ScythianVizier]

There are a lot of ironies where the perpetrators of the AG are concerned.

What about the ironies that must address the crimes of the US?

[yigitp91]

Haha Im Just Laughing And Cant Be Bothered To Read Ur Stories...lol U Just Make Urself Funny With Talkin About All These Bullxxxx

[Joseph]

Haha Im Just Laughing And Cant Be Bothered To Read Ur Stories...lol U Just Make Urself Funny With Talkin About All These Bullxxxx

Very well.

[Joseph]

Haha Im Just Laughing And Cant Be Bothered To Read Ur Stories...lol U Just Make Urself Funny With Talkin About All These Bullxxxx

You have the choice to stay ignorant.

[Gavur]

Turkish Christians hope for more rights after vote

Wednesday, March 14, 2007




VIENNA - Reuters

The spiritual head of Orthodox Christians said on Monday he was hoping that the situation for the Christian minority in predominantly Muslim Turkey would improve after the country's elections due later this year.

Patriarch Bartholomew, who is visiting Austria this week to receive an award, said in Vienna there had been little change since Pope Benedict's visit in Turkey last year.

"Not really, not yet," Bartholomew said when asked if there had been any improvements for his community since then. He was speaking after a meeting with Austrian President Heinz Fischer.

"There are still several problems," he added. "We are optimistic that within the European perspective of our country Turkey, especially after the coming elections, these problems as well as those of other minorities will be resolved one by one."

Turkey is due to elect a new president in May and a new parliament in October or November.

Bartholomew is the spiritual leader of the world's estimated 250 million Orthodox Christians but presides directly over a tiny flock of only about 3,000 Greek Orthodox left in Istanbul.

An ethnic Greek with Turkish citizenship, the multi-lingual Bartholomew has campaigned for the re-opening of the Halki seminary on an island near Istanbul, saying its continued closure poses a threat to the survival of his church in Turkey.

The government, under European Union pressure, is seeking an acceptable formula to re-open the seminary. But this is proving difficult in an election year which has seen other reforms demanded by Turkey's plans to join the EU stalling as well.

Bartholomew said the reforms were necessary for the Turkish people's own sake, not because of foreign pressure.

"We want that our country makes changes and reforms not under the pressure of any other country or of Brussels, but because this is needed for the Turkish people," he said.

"We are part of the Turkish society, were born in Turkey, studied in Turkey, are working in Turkey, and we shall die in Turkey," he said. "So we want to feel not as citizens of a second class but as citizens of equal rights to the majority."